Guangcaici Firing Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The Guangzhou Guangcai porcelain firing craft is representative of overglaze painting; it has a long history, beginning around the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, and has lasted over three hundred years to this day.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Historically, Guangcai porcelain was exported in large quantities to meet the demand of Western merchants. Guangcai porcelain covers a wide range of subjects and has brilliant colors. Its firing craft mainly includes the making of painted-decoration pigments, the use of painted-decoration tools, and the gilding "doucai" (contrasting-color) technique. Guangcai porcelain comes in many varieties, mainly including daily utensils, display and curio objects, stationery and recreational items, and religious ritual implements. Guangcai porcelain includes different types such as three-color, five-color, and cloisonné-enamel (falangcai) glaze, and also imitates Western painting methods to produce porcelain with a unique painted style. Its firing craft is rooted among the people and manifests four major characteristics—the fusion of Chinese and Western colored-porcelain techniques, distinctive pigment making, a strong Lingnan cultural character, and rich painted methods and subject matter—giving it important cultural and historical research value. As an important carrier of Lingnan culture, the Guangcai porcelain firing craft still enjoys a high reputation at home and abroad to this day.
Making the overglaze colours
Guangcai colours are mixed to a workable consistency and tested first, so every piece of a pattern comes out the same hue.
Sealing the gold
Gold must be sealed before the final firing or it flakes and dulls; this step separates fine guangcai from ordinary gilt ware.
Handling the brushes
Fine brushes carry the wash: how much colour sits in the tip decides whether one stroke gradates or goes dry.
Built-up gold painting
Built-up gold lays several layers so the line stands proud with a deep lustre, the hardest of the four guangcai painting types.
Woven-gold porcelain
The Guangzhou workshops that produced woven-gold porcelain, co-founded by Yu Peixi, made guangcai a major export.
Layered colour and processional figures
Yu Peixi was famed for layered colour and for figures in long rows, and designed over six hundred new patterns while training five hundred pupils.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The painted types can be divided into four major categories: hand painting, custom-order painting, gold-accumulation painting, and Lingnan-school painting.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Yu Peixi (per the official archive of the related inheritor): Representative inheritor of the Guangcai porcelain firing craft, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item (third batch). Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts. One of the founders of the Guangzhou Guangcai processing workshop and, later, the Zhijin (gold-woven) colored-porcelain factory. In 1945 he studied the Guangcai porcelain firing craft under the famous Guangcai master Situ Mei, and for a long time mainly engaged in Guangcai creation, design, and apprentice teaching. Rich in experience, comprehensive in technique, and of high attainment, he excels at Guangcai fine-line patterns of animals, flowers, and figures, and has strong modeling ability, especially known for his special skills in overpainting colors (shangseshang) and long-format figures. He has created and designed more than six hundred new Guangcai patterns (sets) and taught over five hundred apprentices. Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1929, passed away in March 2013, a native of Taishan City, Guangdong Province. Chen Wenmin (per the official archive of the related inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1961, a native of Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. Representative inheritor of the Guangcai porcelain firing craft, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item (fourth batch). Senior arts and crafts artist, Guangdong Provincial Master of Arts and Crafts. He studied under Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts Yu Peixi, and later learned pigment making and firing techniques from other Guangcai masters, mastering the entire process of Guangcai firing and production. He has strong independent design and creative ability, especially excels at absorbing other artistic elements, applying the brushwork and lines of calligraphy to Guangcai art, and integrates Western craft styles, trying modern technical methods such as photography and computers to enhance Guangcai's expressiveness. He has successively taught more than one hundred and eighty apprentices, many of whom have established their own workshops and become capable in their own right
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yu Peixi 03-1354
- Chen Wenmin 04-1876
- Tan Guanghui 05-2784
- Dihuiling
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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